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So yes, most guides will tell you you need to wear a respirator while working with the resin, but personally I find it really depends on the type of resin I’m using. Generally if I’m just filling the vat then starting a print I won’t bother, same if I’m just removing my print from the plate and getting it ready to post process. But if I’m cleaning up and emptying the vat or I have a bunch of prints I’m working to clean and cure I’ll wear my respirator. Gloves are an always though.
A few additional items you’ll want:
- a silicon mat to work on to make clean up easier
- paint filters an a funnel to strain the leftover resin when you’re done printing and want to store it for later
- a plastic putty knife to scrape failed prints from the film (also good for removing your print from the build plate)
- high quality isopropyl alcohol (better than 90%, any less and there’s too much water which makes cleaning not work as well). I pick mine up at the local big box home improvement store (Home Depot, Lowe’s, Menards, etc) in gallon cans. Find it in the aisle with cleaning stuff and paint thinners.
- you’ll want to put some isopropyl into a bottle just for cleaning your equipment and work area. I use a spray bottle that I also use for cleaning the build plate on my FDM printer.
- extra film since you’ll likely scratch yours after a few failed prints
I found it takes some practice to get the prints setup and sliced for good printing, way more than when I later got into FDM printing, expect failed prints. Supports are much more necessary than on FDM prints, but the fact that it’s upside down doesn’t really make a difference since it’s still printing bottom to top, you just need to be careful of islands as you print since it’s all printed a full layer at a time. This also means the only thing that increases print time is height, something that is the full area of the build plate but only 1cm tall will print faster than a 10cm long needle printed straight up and down despite being way more volume. So fill up that build plate with multiple models to save time.
It does require a lot more post processing than FDM, like at least as much work as prepping, slicing, and actually printing. I can take something off my FDM printer and it’s ready to use, I need to account for at least 30-60 mins of work once my resin prints are finished to clean them, cure them in my UV box, remove supports, and then clean up the vat and printer. I tend to batch print for this reason, getting 3-5 sets of items ready to go and then running them back to back over the weekend. This means I only need to clean the printer up once.
You’ll want to print (likely on your FDM printer) an adapter to allow your build plate to be hung at an angle to allow resin to drain into the vat once a print is done. This will waste less resin when you clean.
This is all just off the top of my head and written on mobile, so apologies for and autocorrect mistakes. Feel free to ask for clarification on anything.